Prologue. Memories

Bella's POV::

I stirred awake, I felt a bit light headed and cold. Very cold. I took a deep, icy breath. I looked around anxiously, was I outside in the snow? No. I was lying on an all too familiar black leather couch. I sat up quickly and looked down at myself. Pale skin, that was normal; perfect body, not normal. I stood up and heard a light chuckle from the corner of the room. I spun around wildly, Edward was staring at me, a smile on his heavenly face. "Bella." He stood from the chair he had been resting upon and walked slowly towards me, slower than a human's pace. I tried to speak but my voice was caught in my throat. "How are you?" I wasn't sure what was going on but I shrugged in response.

I finally managed to choke out, "I'm a bit confused..." Edward nodded. "You look confused." He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes. "Tell me one thing"

I nodded.

"Do you really not remember"

I shook my head. I wished I knew what he was talking about. I bit my lip. Why couldn't I remember anything? Edward's face was practically unreadable, there was something in his eyes but I couldn't tell what it was. I took a deep, rattling breath, making my senses go wild. I could smell blood, but in a house of vampire's it seemed unlikely, everything was in great detail that I hadn't noticed before, I could hear quiet conversations rooms away and felt absolutely no heart beat in my chest. Edward just stared at me. Finally he said, "Bella, you've been bitten"

I bit deeper into my lip. This couldn't be happening. I was a vampire? Excitement, fear and a lot of other feelings rushed through me. The floor of Edward's bedroom was soon underneath my knees. Edward was by my side in an instant, pulling me back up to my feet.

"Bella! Snap out of it!" I looked drunkenly into Edward's honey eyes. He seemed worried. "Bella, you've got to focus. Who bit you?" I looked past his deep gaze, no memory of anything ever happening to me came to mind. I didn't even remember quite how I knew Edward. He put his hands around my face, his touch should have been cold, but it didn't seem to be different from my own skin. Was this because I was really a vampire, or because I was just so shocked? He slowly pulled me closer to him and before I knew it, our lips were touching. Everything rushed back to me then; when I first met Edward, being attacked by an obsessively thirsty vampire, my wonderful night at the prom, Jacob Black, and finally, a pale face with dark eyes, biting my wrist. Our kiss continued, my fingers were tangled in Edward's beautiful hair. My memory of the vampire became more clear; the vampire's teeth sank into my skin, then he ran off. Edward whispered my name in the seconds our lips were apart. Another memory; the fire rushed through me, then everything was the same. Three days of the fire, never ending pain, and then my heart stopped, my body frozen cold. Edward pulled away, both of us were breathing heavily. He stared caringly at my face. "Do you remember now, Bella?"

I nodded, slowly, clearing my head and taking deep breaths. He looked quizzically at me, apparently he wanted to know every detail. I took another deep breath, then suddenly remembered; I was a vampire. I no longer needed oxygen. I sighed, what intolerable fool did this to me? Edward was still holding my face in his hands,

"Bella?" I sighed again. I felt like I was going to cry; let me rephrase that, I felt like I was crying. My hand shot up to my eyes, wiping them to clear the tears, but there were none. I looked down at my dry hand at the same moment Edward chuckled. "You cannot cry now that you're a vampire." His eyes were filled with love. I shook my head and looked down at my sneakers. Why me? I had always been excited about becoming a vampire, why did it seem so terrible? I was able to spend all eternity with Edward by my side, I could kiss him with passion, walk without falling, run at ridiculous speeds. What was wrong with me? This was heaven on earth. I fell backwards onto Edward's couch. This was all happening too fast, even for a vampire. Edward sat next to me. "Tell me about the memory." I tried not to look at him, but he was so irresistible I couldn't help but glance his way.

"I was..." I bit my lip. What was I doing? "I'm pretty sure I was in La Push, sitting on the beach. I was waiting for Jacob." I said his name quietly, even though I knew Edward would hear. "Then it was all very fast... I saw the dark eyes in my face and his grip was completely unbreakable." I shivered; the more I remembered, the more I wished I was still knocked out. "He bit me then, and ran off after a few seconds." A chill ran down my spine, it hadn't seemed so terrifying but the more I thought about it, it was a life or death experience. "He apparently didn't want me for my blood." I felt nauseous, blood was disgusting. How was I going to live off it? "His goal must have been to change me." I shrugged and broke away from Edward's powerful gaze. I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye.

"Well," he took my hand in his and pressed his lips against it. "welcome to your new home, Bella"
And then I kissed him. It was easy after that, everything went fast, extremely smooth. There was nothing stopping us, we both knew that, and we could finally be together without doing any damage to each other. Rather, any damage to me. Maybe being a vampire wasn't so terrible?